Newsom Vetoes Hospital Seismic Safety Deadline Bill

A bill that would have extended a seismic safety deadline for hospital buildings and identify milestones to ensure that hospitals are on track to meet the new standards was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday following split votes on the bill in both houses of the legislature in late August.

Senate Bill 1432, authored by Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), would have, in conjunction with the California Hospital Association, addressed the 2030 seismic requirement. According to the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic Safety Act of 1983, owners of hospitals, by January 1, 2030, must either demolish, replace, or change to nonacute care use all hospital buildings that are not in compliance with new standards or seismically retrofit all acute care inpatient hospital buildings so they are in substantial compliance with these standards.

SB 1432 would have delayed the compliance date by five years to January 1, 2035, as well put into place specified milestones  used for determining whether the hospital is making progress towards meeting the hospital’s seismic compliance deadline. The bill would have also required the hospital to demonstrate efforts to comply with the seismic compliance deadline by providing the department with a plan outlining how seismic construction costs and other financial responsibilities will be met and what funding sources will be used if the hospital fails to meet an agreed-upon milestone. Finally, hospitals would have had to also display in hospital waiting rooms notices that they were not in compliance with seismic safety regulations beginning in 2025.

Senator Caballero wrote the bill to keep more hospitals open and give them more time to comply with the seismic regulations, as they would otherwise have to close if they didn’t. Caballero specifically cited the closure of Madera Community Hospital a few years ago on  how devastating hospital closures can be.

“Residents in my district suffered devastating impacts with the closure of the only hospital within a 30-mile radius,” said Caballero earlier this year. “My bill establishes a framework that recognizes regional healthcare challenges, enhances transparency, demands accountability, and creates a viable pathway for our hospitals to meet seismic compliance standards according to each unique circumstance.”

Opponents, led by the California Nurses Association (CNA) said that hospitals have had three decades to become compliant, and that they would only ask for more and more extensions to delay giving hospital staff and patients safety. They countered that hospitals could shut down if damaged by an earthquake, saying that standards needed to be met now to stop that possibility from happening.

A divided legislature

The bill deeply divided the Assembly and Senate. Left-leaning Democrats in both Houses opposed the bill and attempted to stop the support from GOP and more moderate Democrats. However they failed, with a split 56-0 with 23 abstentions coming out in the Assembly and a 31-0 with 9 abstention Senate result occurring late last month. It had been widely expected that Newsom would sign the bill, as the majority of Californians wanted to give hospitals more time to comply.

However, in a surprise move on Thursday, Newsom instead vetoed SB 1432, wanting a more case-by-case way of selecting if hospitals needed extensions like under the current system rather than a blanket extension to all hospitals. In his veto message, Newsom stated that ” The question is not if California will experience a significant earthquake, it’s when. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Northern California faces a 72 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake by 2043. Any extensions that may be considered to the 2030 deadline must balance the increased risk for the patients, hardworking hospital staff and emergency responders, and people living in that community. Providing an extended deadline should be limited in scope, granted only on a case-by-case basis to hospitals with demonstrated need and a clear path to compliance, and in combination with strong accountability and enforcement mechanisms. This bill’s proposal to allow any hospital a five-year compliance extension is too long. I encourage any hospitals at risk of non-compliance with the 2030 deadline to prioritize remaining work.”

Bill detractors celebrated the dark horse victory on Friday. In a statement, the CNA said that “This is an important victory for nurses and patients across the state. Hospitals have had over three decades to ensure that they remain open and fully functioning in the event of a major earthquake. Nurses applaud Governor Newsom for standing with nurses, patients, and our communities today by keeping hospital executives accountable to vital seismic safety standards. Nurses continue to fight to ensure that hospitals comply with the law. S.B. 1432 is just the latest attempt to skirt seismic safety compliance. We know hospitals will continue to delay and we’ll continue to fight back against industry attempts to delay.”

However, many in the health care industry said that the bill could be an early death knell for hospitals, as warned by Caballero and other supporters.

“Congrats nurses, you just screwed over everyone,” explained health care advisor Ana Morales to the Globe on Friday. “Any nurse who was for this has to seriously consider giving back their nursing degree or formally renounce the Nightingale pledge. By not giving the extension, they are dooming so many patients at hospitals that just need a little more time to comply with those standards, and they just don’t care to give it to them.

“When more hospitals like Madera shut down – not if, when – because of this law and patients suffer, you can point to Gavin Newsom and the CNA. Glad to know that you just don’t care.”

Newsom is expected to sign and veto more bills by the September 30th deadline.